


Fractured Moments (Inktober 2019)

by UnlikeClockwork (mistressofmuses)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: 1001 Nights (fairy tale), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Childhood Friends, Destiny Trio, East of the Sun and West of the Moon (fairy tale) - Freeform, Fairy Tales, Flirting, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Inktober 2019, Kairi & Sora's mom friendship, Kairi is queen of Radiant Garden (at least at later points), Mr. Fox (fairy tale), Multi, Naminé (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform, OT3, Paopu Fruit (Kingdom Hearts), Pre-OT3, Riku Angst (Kingdom Hearts), The Firebird (fairy tale), The Snow Queen (fairy tale), but I promise it'll get better for him, established relationship (at least at some points), jumping around the timeline, self-imposed pining, they visit the Pride Lands and get to be big cats at one point
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2020-11-10 20:02:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 14,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20857454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistressofmuses/pseuds/UnlikeClockwork
Summary: Fractured moments make a life. A series of short Destiny Trio oneshots for Inktober 2019. Tags and rating subject to change. All of these stories fit along the same non-canon-compliant timeline for the three, but aren't in chronological order. Many of the individual stories are gen or pre-ship, but it's a timeline in which the three do eventually have a relationship. (Previously titled "October Fairy Tales.")





	1. Ring

**Author's Note:**

> I know that Inktober is really geared toward visual art, but I really want some writing motivation, so I'm borrowing the official Inktober prompt list! These oneshots will be set along the same timeline as a long post-KH2 canon-divergence fic I have yet to finish/publish (because I am nothing if not self-indulgent.) They should all stand alone, but with references to non-canonical events that have taken place. There is a possibility that some of these scenes could later show up in that longer fic if I ever end up finishing it.  
This particular story - Ring - would be set during that fic.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 1 - "Ring"

Riku looks at the silver key, gleaming like captive moonlight between his fingers.

Once a silver ring, matching an impossible gown meant to glow like the moon. The second in a set of three. The ring, along with its two partners, gifted to him in thanks.

And then melded seamlessly with a tiny golden key, brought to him by the wind itself.

It has a feel to it, like its own life flickering inside the metal. Not quite the near-heartbeat-electric-something of a keyblade, but not so far from it. Riku tightens his fingers. The key feels skin-warm. It should be just his own heat in the metal, but he knows that it's always felt that way. Even after being plunged into the icy water of a river, it feels warm. It's also easy enough to assign... romantic value to that warmth. Purely in the _fanciful_ sense. Of course.

One of three rings, and then the key, delivered by the wind, but from _them._ So like a romantic—_fanciful_—fool, he sent the other two rings, shining like the sun and glittering like the stars, to them in return. Hadn’t thought that through well enough, hadn’t considered the symbolism he was trying so hard to get away from. The thoughts he shouldn’t be entertaining, the pressure they should be freed from.

A set of three. 

But since he can’t stop those thoughts, not here in the middle of the night when he’s alone, it’s tempting to think they retain a connection: that this is somehow the warmth of Sora or Kairi wearing the rings (or were those keys now too?) that he had sent to them. Had they heeded the advice (the begging, the pleading) that he'd sent with? _Go home. Don't follow. Please, please just be safe. Take the happily ever after you've earned, and let me work to earn mine, so I’m strong enough to come back. _Maybe he can pretend that the heat meant they'd returned to the Islands, that it was sun-warmth from days on the shore, from island sun.

Riku tucks the key back under his shirt, letting it rest over his heart, pretending he isn’t imagining their warmth instead, pretending he doesn’t hope they feel his.


	2. Mindless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2 - "Mindless"
> 
> Sora thinks about Heartless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the timeline, this is early within that unwritten fic, close in time to "Ring." Sora and Kairi have just encountered a new kind of Heartless.

The Heartless were mindless.

It was part of what made them so dangerous, because there was nothing to dissuade them. They had one goal, and could not be frightened or intimidated away from it. They could be injured, and they would continue to hunt. They could be killed, and the rest would keep going.

But it was also a comfort. In strategy, that mindlessness was something to be counted on. Yes, they were relentless, but they were also predictable. And morally, it was a comfort not to worry about what you were destroying.

The exceptions were dangerous. Terrifying. The exceptions, the Heartless that learned to take a human form, those could end the worlds. Any Heartless would kill you to assuage their ceaseless hunger, but the human-acting ones would _enjoy_ it. Would find the cracks in you it could sink into and tear your life apart before devouring you.

Those things in the woods had looked like Shadows, moved like Shadows. They certainly weren’t the human-like monsters that filled Sora’s nightmares on a bad night, as either the corrupting ones he was forced to fight (_sea-green eyes turning orange, smile turning cruel_) or the ones he was trapped as (_that bottomless hunger, nothing to focus on but move-more-fight-run-more-hunger-more_). But they didn’t quite _act_ like Shadows. It wasn’t just the glint of their eyes, mirrored silver instead of lamplight gold, but their behavior… ambushes and traps and _herding_.

Like they had a _plan._ Like they had _orders_. Like they were capable of those things.

He had no proof, not beyond the feeling that there was something wrong.

Sora poked a stick into the fire, unnecessary for a fire fed by magic, but it was better than pacing if he needed some way to move. Kairi rolled over in her sleep. It was her turn to take watch, but Sora let her sleep. He knew he wouldn’t be able to.


	3. Bait

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kairi takes a personal interest in protecting her kingdom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 3 - "Bait"
> 
> Set in the future along this timeline, where Kairi has become the queen of Radiant Garden.

Someone had been robbing people on the roads, past the area served by the magical transit used near the Bastion and within the city, out where people mostly relied on their own feet.

This someone had started to fancy himself a bandit lord.

Radiant Garden sent guards to apprehend him, of course, as soon as the reports started coming in, but he vanished as soon as any kind of official patrol came through. He never attacked anyone well-armed or in large groups, preferring to pick off individuals and other easy targets. That made it easy enough for some people to pass through safely, if they could afford protection. But not everyone could, and no one should have to fear for their safety traveling through the kingdom. Guards patrolling the road helped, but they couldn’t be everywhere at once.

And lately, it had been more than robbery. Not everyone had walked away unharmed. Or in one case, at all.

The word had spread, there was a murderer along the road: no one should venture along it if they had any other choice. For weeks now, people had been listening to the warnings, taking the longer alternative routes, or choosing not to travel at all.

It would be the absolute height of foolishness for anyone to dare the roads alone, especially now that this so-called “Bandit Lord” would likely be getting desperate, with fewer travelers to target.

Kairi well knew it. She pulled the long coat a little more tightly around her, warding off the slight autumn chill that had seeped in under the trees. Each step produced a muted jingle from the coins in the bag at her hip. Being out on these roads, alone, with valuables to steal, was a very bad idea.

She tried to attune her ears to the sounds in the trees. Rustles of movement that she expected, as well as those she didn’t. The suspense felt worse than some inevitable confrontation.

A sound on the rough ground behind her, a footstep deliberately placed so she’d hear it.

She spun, eyes wide.

The man was big, surprisingly clean-cut, and well-armed, the way his victims had described him.

“Rough time of year for a young woman to be out alone.” It could have been conversational, but he made sure the implied threat was clear.

“I’m just traveling back to Radiant Garden,” Kairi said, taking a short step back, careful of the placement of her feet.

“Anyone warn you that this is a toll road?” He seemed to think that was terribly clever.

“I know it isn’t.”

More rustling in the trees, but she couldn’t see anyone yet.

“Oh, there is a toll these days, and you look like you can pay it. The coin you’re carrying is practically singing to me.”

She took another step back, and he stalked forward. 

“You look familiar,” he said. “Not that it matters, you understand.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Kairi answered, before muttering another word under her breath.

The edge of the bandit’s coat caught fire. He spun, frantically trying to see what had happened, and then shed the coat entirely, stomping out the flames. “What the?” He drew his knife as he spun back to face her. “Some kind of witch, are you?”

But she’d already closed the remaining distance, Keyblade pressed firmly to his throat, and a whispered “freeze” rooting his feet to the ground. Kairi pushed forward until he lost his balance, falling backward.

“Who the hell are you?” he bit out.

She smiled brightly, as Sora and Riku finally joined her on the path. “Just the bait.”


	4. Freeze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 4 - "Freeze"
> 
> Riku despairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set late in the fic-yet-to-be-written, Riku believes he's lost the people he loves.
> 
> Warning for implied character death.

_I let her die. She would be alive if she hadn’t been chasing me._

Riku’s eyes burned, and not from unshed tears. He did not deserve tears. This was like sand, sharp and cutting every time he blinked. He remembered the mirror shattering after showing him that last, awful moment. The tiny shards, small as dust, blowing into his face, his eyes… Such an insignificant thing, compared to the enormity of loss. And already, the physical pain was fading.

“You’ve been given the gift of seeing things as they truly are.”

Was that what the glass shards did? Revealed the truth? He looked up at the twisted, evil thing before him. No illusions now. No lovely, terrifying, tempting faces.

“Clarity. Truth, without the pretty lies we use to soften it.”

“What truth do you expect me to see?” Riku choked out. _What worse thing could there be?_

“The worlds, all of them, are ugly things. People are ugly things. Self-interested, petty, cruel. Any glimpse of light, like your Kairi, will be snuffed out by the vicious. That kind of light is not meant to survive. And the light that is not destroyed quickly will gutter and die, extinguishing itself as it discovers the futility of its fight. Your Sora.”

“My fault…”

“They were seeking you. But surely, you did everything within your power to dissuade them...“ A pause, letting the condemnation bloom. “Oh. Of course. Because you didn’t have the same kind of light they did. You _liked_ that they would seek you, that they _loved_ you. And so no matter what you said, you _enjoyed_ having their attention.”

Riku folded in on himself.

“I have one more gift for you.”

There was nothing to say.

“The gift of a cold heart. You see the world as it is, but I can also grant you an even better boon. For your heart to freeze over.”

Riku hated the treacherous flicker of hope. But anything would be better than this. To not _feel_ the weight of the grief that he hadn’t even mapped the edges of yet.

“Look at me.”

Riku did, his dry eyes feeling like another layer of condemnation. The advisor, the shape-shifting _thing_ that had been tormenting him, now looked like… nothing. And everything. Twisted, awful, and yet like nothing had changed. The whatever-he-was knelt down, and pressed his fingers to Riku’s chest.

Riku didn’t resist as he felt the shard of glass break the skin, and then keep going into his chest. The sharp, real kind of pain became a burning cold, still painful but oddly _un_real. He glanced down and saw a few drops of blood welling from the wound, but that already seemed to be closing. His heart felt like a stone in his chest, its beat suddenly slow, pushing the cold through his veins, until his whole body felt distant.

The man leaned close, and murmured in Riku’s ear, “A frozen heart will let you travel to the very depth of winter, where the Snow Queen dwells. With our glass in her ice, we can grant these gifts to everyone.”

-

To freeze his heart had been a promise of peace, at least of a sort.

Contentment, love, joy, those were out of reach, but at least numbness should have been attainable.

It was far, far later, surrounded by the mirrors replaying the worst things he had ever seen or thought, reflecting back his twisted, evil, true self, that he learned _frozen_ did not mean _unfeeling_.


	5. Build

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 5 - "Build"
> 
> Sora, Riku, and Kairi consider the things they've built.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a fluffy one! With a tinge of sappy, tbh. Set late on the timeline, probably some time after "Bait." Established relationship at this point, after Kairi has become queen.

“Of all the things we’ve built, I think this is my favorite.” Sora looked over at Kairi and smiled.

The sun was setting, silhouetting the construction in Radiant Garden. It was almost complete, the final phase of the planned improvements. Restoration of any of the older buildings that had been damaged, addition of new residential neighborhoods to accommodate people moving back, and finally new expansion of the magical transportation systems in Hollow Bastion. 

It would take more magic to power, but would make things easier for all of the residents. Aerith, Leon, Yuffie, and Cid had worked out a clever way to charge materia to help keep the mechanisms working, and plenty of the magic-users in the city had volunteered time and energy to keep them running. They’d be available even for citizens who didn’t have magical aptitude.

“I don’t know,” Riku said, bumping his shoulder into Sora’s other side. “I think we made some pretty great sandcastles when we were kids. It’s pretty hard to top those.”

Sora laughed. “The ones that inevitably got wiped out by a stray blitzball?”

“We did design some impressive dream homes that way,” Kairi agreed. “I seem to recall that ‘rooms made of trampolines’ featured a bit more prominently than we wound up with in Hollow Bastion.”

“More’s the pity.” Riku sighed. “Though you did get your library, and all the secret passages you can shake a keyblade at.”

“And it’s even exactly the library I was always envisioning as a child. How about that?”

“What about you, Kairi?” Sora asked. “Do you think the sandcastles were the best, or the whole city of Radiant Garden?”

She leaned on the wall. “I think my favorite might be the raft. Remember?”

Sora looked up at the first stars just starting to appear over the city, and briefly saw a very different sky. Of course he remembered the raft.

“We never even got to use it,” Riku said. “And it wouldn’t have worked, anyway.”

“To find where I came from…” Kairi trailed off. “We couldn’t have sailed to Radiant Garden, it’s true. But it did work, in a way. Everything that happened led here, right?”

“With some detours. But yes.” Sora pulled her into a sideways hug, then reached over to pull Riku in as well.

Kairi leaned in, and stifled a yawn.

Riku laughed. “Point taken. Long day of testing magic systems.”

“And more tomorrow. Let’s head to bed.”

-

Riku had taken the center spot in the oversize bed, holding both the others close. Sora was half drifting off, and it looked like Kairi was doing the same on Riku’s other shoulder. They’d all fallen comfortably quiet a few minutes before.

Through half-closed eyes, Sora watched Riku lace his fingers with Kairi’s and bring her hand up to softly kiss. She didn’t open her eyes, but she did smile. Sora’s position didn’t allow for quite the same gesture, but Riku traced an aimless pattern against his shoulder and squeezed him tighter for just a moment.

“Of all the things we’ve built, I think this is my favorite,” Riku whispered.


	6. Husky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 6 - "Husky"
> 
> Kairi speaks to a hired guide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly loose use of the prompt, since it's a world where "husky" probably isn't specifically a breed, but featuring a sled dog that is for all intents and purposes a husky.
> 
> This would be set late in the unwritten-fic, sometime a bit after "Freeze." Kairi and Sora are still trying to find Riku, and have hired a guide to take them to a place they hope to find an answer.

“And you’re telling me this… _isn’t_… a wolf?” Kairi was trying not to let her nervousness show, though it was almost certainly a lost cause at this point.

“No, miss. Drift’s a sled dog. She’s gonna be one of the ones getting you where you said you needed to go.” To his credit, the man they were hiring as a guide didn’t make a bigger deal out her ignorance. There was a hint of amusement in his eyes, but his tone was perfectly polite.

“I see.” She relaxed her shoulders a little, no longer halfway to calling up her Keyblade, but not quite ready to get any closer.

“I take it you’re from the south,” the man said, turning back to the wall of equipment.

It was nice when people filled in her and Sora’s story for them. Made it easier not to stumble over an explanation that they didn’t realize didn’t make sense on a new world. So she ran with it. “From the south, yes.”

“Not many dogs like Drift down there. Hotter weather and closed in space doesn’t agree with them.”

‘Hotter weather’ seemed like it could describe anything compared to _this_, but she thought of the summers on Destiny Islands, and couldn’t imagine a dog that looked like it had that much fur handling the heat. Or sand. She made a noncommittal noise that she hoped sounded agreeable.

“So what’s a pair of southerners like you doing up here, looking for Ice-Glass?”

“We’re looking for someone.”

The man nodded sympathetically, rewinding a length of cord before stowing it in the bag. “Someone else who went there, or…” The way he trailed off implied this really wasn’t his first trip there.

“We’re looking for the Oracle,” Kairi confirmed. No sense in hiding it.

“Lots of folks look for the Oracle. And lots of folks go looking for the folks that looked for the Oracle, just so they have a body to bury.”

Kairi flinched. “The man we’re looking for… this is the last way we know of to try and find him.”

“Is he worth it?”

The question surprised her. “Of course.”

“Not some good-for-nothing who ran out on you? Not an estranged brother you feel responsible for? Not an ex-husband or a rival or a man who owed you something and ran away rather than pay it?”

She shook her head. “No, he’s… our best friend. We love him more than anything. We think he’s in danger, and we have to find him.”

The guide sighed. “Love and worthiness and lack thereof are tangled around that mountain. I sincerely hope no one has to come looking to recover your bones.”

“Thank you,” Kairi said stiffly.

She felt a sudden weight, like someone shoving a couch into her. Drift was leaning into her, bi-colored eyes looking through the mask-like markings on her face.

“She likes you,” the guide said. “Maybe that’s a good sign.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used to have a husky, and the number of people who would shriek "A WOLF!" about him...


	7. Enchanted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 7 - "Enchanted"
> 
> An excerpt from a guidebook detailing new worlds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For a fic largely hinging on various fairy tales, this should have been one of the easiest prompts, and yet somehow I struggled. This is kind of an odd one, from an external perspective, written a bit like a guidebook. This would be set likely the farthest in the future, at a point where Kairi, Sora, and Riku's rule over Radiant Garden is comfortably secure.

_Excerpt from a book titled “Collected Notes on the New Worlds”_

The castle is enchanted, they say. Rumors spread by envoys who have seen it, or those who have heard about it through the political grapevine.

In some worlds, this doesn’t sound so strange. Some monarchs nod wisely, because they themselves live in enchanted castles, or were rescued from them, or performed heroic feats in them. So an enchanted castle is par for the course. As long as the enchantment poses no threat, it’s due no special consideration beyond the ordinary considerations of allyship or at least cordial diplomatic relations.

In other lands, it’s likely such a thing sounds like a fairy tale, a story certainly born of exaggeration, if not deliberate lies. Some of the diplomats discuss the scientific principles behind the alleged “enchantments” and others dismiss it outright.

The castle is enchanted, they say.

There are floating stone lifts that take you from one part of the castle to another. From one part of the _city_ to another, even. Some of them require a magic spell to activate, and can take you to different places depending which spell you use.

There are bubbles that close around you and teleport you through walls and underwater, letting you out in other passages. The passages themselves rearrange based on switches and buttons. A massive library does the same, the positioning of books on shelves determining the path through the stacks.

Rumors abound about the castle, but even more about the inhabitants, particularly the trio of rulers.

The queen and her consorts are rumored to be as enchanted as the castle, gifted with extraordinary powers. Supposedly they can call the very elements to them with whispered spells, and even heal injuries the same way. And many of the stories tell of acts of adventure and heroism that frankly strain credulity.

The queen is a peaceful sort, the rumors all seem to agree. But there’s also a note of caution. As unlikely as some of the stories of her and her consorts’ adventures may be, it is likely they contain some seeds of truth, if certain accounts are to be believed:

At least one envoy described a dinner party at which another of the supposed-diplomatic representatives suddenly attacked, mistaking the peaceful nature of the world for a soft target. Queen Kairi did not even call up guards, but she and both her consorts summoned magical weapons to their hands in an instant, stopping the would-be assassin before he landed a single strike.

Rumors are, of course, just that. No matter how many times they are repeated, or how many claim to be able to confirm them, it’s hard to be truly satisfied without personally witnessing their truth or falsehood.

Your author hopes to someday have the chance to visit this world, to see the marvels of the Bastion in Radiant Garden for myself. Until then, I hope that anyone granted an invitation to see it accepts, and brings us more details and stories to record and consider.


	8. Frail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 8 - "Frail"
> 
> Kairi knows, with absolute conviction, there should be three of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rewrite of a one-shot from... oof, more than 10 years ago. This is set in the gap between Chain of Memories and KH2, while Sora is sleeping.

People think it’s weird for Kairi to spend time at the woman’s house.

And maybe it is a little odd: the woman is old enough to be Kairi’s mother, though she doesn’t have any children of her own. But she thinks she had a son, just about Kairi’s age, she just can’t quite remember him. She doesn’t know his name, or what he looks like, or how he could have disappeared. People think she’s crazy, either avoiding her entirely, or only talking about her in voices thick with pity. The scorn has worn at her, making her seem older and frailer than she should be.

Because really, _if_ she’d had a son who went missing, how could she not even remember his _name_? 

And yet, she knows Kairi. Knows her down to her favorite kind of cookies and what games she used to play as a child. How she had a fairy-princess phase, but never had the patience for long dress-up dresses, because they got in the way when they played at the beach. Remembers the bracelets and charms Kairi used to make out of shells… even found one of them to show her, and yes, Kairi knows it was one of hers…

Maybe if that was all, Kairi would also think the woman was crazy. Or even a little creepy, knowing so much about Kairi.

But Kairi understands, more than anyone else, because she’s missing someone too. With absolute conviction, she knows there should be three of them.

At least everyone else remembers Riku, even if none of them seem to miss him like Kairi does. For everyone else, it’s an offhand _whatever happened to him?_ remark, but for Kairi, it’s like there’s a hole in the world. A deep sense of _wrong._

But as sure as she is that Riku is still supposed to be there, she’s just as sure there was another boy. There should be three of them, not Kairi alone. The other boy is always on the edge of her memory, like a word you just can’t quite think of, or a dream you forget as soon as you open your eyes. Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka laugh it off: they were on the play island every day when they were kids, and _they_ don’t remember this mysterious Other Boy. They tease her that the woman is rubbing off on her.

Of course, it’s occurred to her that her Other Boy was also the woman’s son, but they’ll probably never know. For now, they just provide company to each other, nursing the holes in their hearts. The woman makes sugar-dusted lemon and strawberry cookies—_exactly like the ones she remembers_—and they talk. They talk about the weather, or about Kairi’s classes, about Island gossip.

They trail off and stare at the clear Island sky, missing someone they can’t even remember.


	9. Swing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 9 - "Swing"
> 
> Sora is nervous about diving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is set during childhood on Destiny Islands, so is the earliest chronologically so far.

“Go on Sora, you aren’t scared, are you?” Tidus laughed.

“No!” Sora protested, but also didn’t immediately step up to the edge.

One of the grownups had installed a rope swing off one of the trees at the edge of the play island, on the opposite side from the clubhouse. The sea was deep enough for them to jump in there, without worrying about hitting the bottom. Sora had heard a couple of the parents arguing about the swing; some of them thought it was still too dangerous for the children to play on it unsupervised, but others said that the kids were all nine and ten, old enough to be careful, and anyway, it wasn’t any more dangerous than the obstacle course or the trees they climbed.

And of course Sora knew how to swim—had learned to swim almost as soon as he’d learned to walk—but something about _diving_ made him nervous. (Not scared. He wasn’t _scared_.) It was just, there was that feeling that maybe when you went under, you wouldn’t come up again. Like maybe you’d just sink forever…

“Then hurry up!” Tidus said, dancing in place a little. He’d already taken a turn, and had come back for another.

“Oh, uh, you can go on ahead.” Sora stepped to the side.

Tidus gave him a bit of a strange look, but then shrugged, and jumped at the rope, letting it carry him out over the open water before letting go. He went under, but surfaced quickly, swimming toward Selphie to try and dunk her. Wakka dived down and came back up to splash them both.

Sora shifted from side to side. He _knew_ he should just do it, and even sort of thought it’d be fun, but…

“Are you going to dive?” Kairi’s voice was as small and sweet as she was.

“Yeah…” Sora answered, looking at the rope. “Are you?”

She nodded.

Sora stepped aside again. “You can go first, if you want.” He didn’t want to look bad in front of one of his best friends, or keep her waiting.

She didn’t give him a weird look like Tidus had, just grinned and ran full-tilt at the rope. She squealed as she swung out and splashed down. Sora smiled at how happy she’d looked, but still couldn’t quite push himself to go.

What if he grabbed the rope and then couldn’t make himself let go? Then it wouldn’t swing far enough, and he’d wind up _stuck_. That would be even worse than sinking. But everyone else had already gone, except…

“Sora? Still here?”

Riku.

“Y-yeah.” Sora didn’t want to look bad in front of his _other_ best friend either. And Riku was good at everything, which made it even worse. He’d probably tease Sora about it, or turn it into a competition, and then everyone would notice that Sora was too nervous to do it.

“You know you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, right?”

Sora gave a shaky nod. “I _do._ Just…”

“How about you go ahead of me?” Riku said. “If the rope doesn’t swing enough, I can give you a push.”

That was one of the things he was worried about, but… “WhatifIdiveanddon’tcomebackup?” Sora said it quickly.

Riku looked at him with all the solemnity that a ten year old could muster. “Then I would go get you.”

Sora licked his lips nervously, then nodded. “Okay.”

It still took him one false start, but then he jumped and grabbed the rope, which swung out smoothly over the water. For a second he was still afraid his hands would just freeze to the rope, but just at the top of its swing, he let go.

That moment of free fall felt so strangely familiar, especially when he then landed in the water, and for just a second saw it close over his head… But then he was turning back upright, breaking back up to the surface and wiping the water from his eyes, and he was laughing so hard he almost got a lungful of water.

He looked back up and waved to Riku, who waved back before taking his own turn on the rope.

_I would go get you._ And Sora promised himself, _Me too. I’ll always go get you, too._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based very vaguely on the true story of me being terrified of the diving board, and waving all the excited kids on ahead of me in the hopes I'd never have to take a turn.


	10. Pattern

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 10 - "Pattern"
> 
> A conversation while cuddling on a beach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set after the fic-that-isn't-yet, the trio consider what "happily ever after" means.

“So, when are you going to go on some grand adventure that you need to be rescued from?” Kairi asks.

It takes a moment for Sora to register that she’s talking to him. She’s been petting his hair, and Riku’s curled up at his back with an arm thrown over his waist, so he’s been contentedly dozing in the Destiny Islands sun.

“What do you mean?” the words come out a little sleep-heavy.

“Well, we have a pattern, don’t we?” She doesn’t stop petting his hair. “I disappear, and you and Riku come find me. Riku’s still out there, so you go looking for him, and I join you when I get tired of waiting. Riku goes off alone _again_ out of misplaced noble intentions, and we have to go drag him back—”

Sora feels Riku smile against his neck. It’s a bit of a rueful smile, probably, but at least they’ve made it to the ‘we can laugh about it’ stage.

“—So as far as I can tell, it seems like you’re overdue for a turn.”

“Seriously, Sora,” Riku says, breath moving against Sora’s ear. “When do we get to rescue you?”

Leaving is absolutely the _furthest_ thing from his mind right now. “Are you trying to get rid of me? Because you’re going to have to try a lot harder than cuddling on the beach to do that.”

Kairi laughs, and tugs at a spike of his hair. “How can we go on an adventure if we don’t have a quest?”

“I’d rather we all go on an adventure together.” For some reason the admission feels… big, as soon as he says it. It shouldn’t. Together was always the goal. That, and getting them all on the same page about it. But maybe it was admitting that goal wasn’t the _end_.

Kairi’s hand stills for a long moment. “I’d like that,” she says, finally. “I like _this_. It’s just…”

Riku pushes himself up on one elbow, leaving his arm over Sora to look at Kairi. “We don’t have to give up one to have the other.”

Sora nods. “And we never will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's snowing, I'm not ready for that, and I wish I was dozing off on a warm beach.


	11. Snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 11 - "Snow"
> 
> Winter on Destiny Islands doesn't generally come with snow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set at some point after the unwritten fic, but before they've moved to Radiant Garden. Riku, Sora, and Kairi flirt while decorating for Christmas on the Islands. (There's a brief mention of Riku and Sora sharing a room; Riku has moved in with Sora and Sora's mom.) Implied sex, though still quite T-rated.

Kairi flopped backwards on Riku’s bed, considering the card Sora had passed to her. It was almost Christmas, and his extended family had dutifully sent their well-wishes. This was Sora’s absolute favorite holiday, so he was decorating his and Riku’s room with the cards.

“You know, all the Christmas cards and decorations and things all kind of baffled me as a kid,” she said. This card depicted a peaceful forest scene of snowmen and snow-covered evergreens. “All this winter imagery, snowflakes and snowmen and reindeer and things. I always wondered if we were missing out.”

Sora, sitting on the floor, cocked his head to the side. “Hmm, I know what you mean. I had no idea what snow was really like. It was almost as abstract an idea as Santa. Even though unlike _some people—_” he glared at Riku, “_—_I believed in both.”

Riku laughed and sat down on his bed next to Kairi. “You’ve seen both now.”

“I’m still _extremely_ jealous about that, by the way.” Kairi sat up and pointed at Sora. “You met Santa without me!”

“We’ll have to visit Christmastown together,” Sora said. “And Halloweentown. They were great!”

“What about snow?” Riku asked.

Sora made a face. “Not as great as Santa.”

“I think I’ve had my fill of that kind of cold,” Riku said. A shadow passed over his face, but disappeared quickly.

“We should probably enjoy the warm winters,” Kairi agreed. And this winter was especially warm so far, practically still summer temperatures except at night, and even then not even really chilly.

“True,” Riku agreed. “During a cold winter, you can’t get away with wearing tanktops every day” He playfully ran a finger under the strap of the one she was wearing right now. “And that’s a _sincere_ shame.”

She licked her lips. “Oh really, is it?” She suppressed a giggle.

It was Sora who nodded agreement. “Both of you having to wear sleeves all the time? A tragedy.” Then he added, mock-thoughtful, “Of course, when it’s cold out, you may have to think up all sorts of activities to help stay warm…”

At that, Kairi knew her face flushed. “Where did you even _hear_ that?” she asked, now giving in to the laughter.

“I think I want to know what ‘activities’ Sora thinks he’s talking about,” Riku teased, but his fingers were back under the strap of her tanktop, tracing gently up and down.

Sora grinned back. “Use your imagination. I’m pretty sure there are _plenty_ of things you can think up for the three of us to do…” He reached over and put a hand on each of their calves, inching his fingers up.

Kairi playfully kicked a sandled foot at him. “I’m sure that’s true. But as it is, it’s just far too hot to even _consider_ doing anything strenuous…” she flopped backwards again with feigned drama.

“Lazy,” Riku accused, creeping closer up the bed, fingers now going to the hem of her shirt, just slipping under. “But who said it had to be strenuous for you?”

She giggled again and covered her face.

“Sora’s the one who brought it up,” Riku continued. “I think he should be the one doing the work.”

“H-hey,” Sora protested, but he was already scrambling up to join them on the too-small-for-three bed. “Why do I have to do everything?”

“Is that a real complaint?”

“No.”

The card fluttered to the floor, completely forgotten, and they didn’t get back to decorating for quite a while.


	12. Dragon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 12 - "Dragon"
> 
> Kairi, Riku, and Sora did not expect a literal dragon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set after the fic-that-isn't-yet-written, sometime after "Bait" and before "Build".

Kairi plastered herself against the wall to the side of the entrance to the deeper cave.

She met Riku and Sora’s eyes across the passage, and was at least a little bit gratified that theirs were as wide as hers were.

_‘Are you serious?’_ she mouthed. _‘A LITERAL dragon?’_

Riku gave an expressive shrug, only somewhat limited by the amount of space available.

Kairi gave a sharp gesture and a whispered “_Freeze”_ and a wall of ice sealed the opening down into the lower tunnel. The dragon could probably melt it in one or two breaths, but ever since her exposure to the Snow Queen’s castle, her ice spells were extremely effective. At the very least, it bought them a moment of time in which they could talk.

“This is a _literal_ dragon,” Kairi repeated.

“I didn’t _know_ that,” Riku protested. “They said ‘the dragon’ was terrifying the locals. I thought that was like, a title or something.”

“You are so lucky I love you.”

This wasn’t even their world, they’d just volunteered to help out. Kind of a… good will diplomacy mission. Maybe not usually the kind of thing you sent your ruler-and-consorts to do, but it had been pretty effective at getting people to stop underestimating them. Besides, they got bored.

“So, what does a dragon want?” Sora asked.

“Should we… should we _ask?_” Kairi asked. “I’ve never met a dragon before.”

“I’ve met… one,” Sora said hesitantly. “He could talk. But I don’t know if this is quite the same thing. He was… smaller.”

Kairi shrugged. “What’s the worst that can happen?” Then she snapped her fingers and said, “Fire.” 

Her fire spells weren’t nearly as impressive as her ice ones, but the ice still responded to her will and dutifully melted.

“CAN… CAN YOU DO THAT AGAIN?” the voice rumbled the cave itself.

Kairi stared at the other two, hoping her wide eyes and pressed-thin lips conveyed just how out of control this day was starting to feel before answering: “Hello? Do what?”

“MAKE FIRE.”

“Uh… sure. _Fire._” She made a small one, a little self-powered flame.

The contented sigh that followed still rattled the stones on the cave floor. “VERY GOOD.”

“So, uh… Dragon. Do you have a name?” she asked.

“NO NAME HAS BEEN GIVEN EXCEPT DRAGON.”

“All right. Dragon. So, it sounds like there’s some tension with the locals...”

“TOOK FIRE. COLD. NEED FOOD OR FIRE.”

“So uh… maybe relevant to mention,” Riku said. “But the mayor was really excited to show off this magic firestone he had that was heating the entire town.”

Sora clunked his head against the cave wall. “Seriously?”

“He uh, definitely failed to mention that he’d stolen that.”

Kairi took a deep breath. And then another. “All right, Dragon. We’ll try to get your stone back. If we leave you with another fire, will you stay here until we come back?”

“YES.”

All three of them cast a fira spell together, with enough energy behind it that it should keep going for a good long while.

Things with the mayor did not go as smoothly as could have been hoped. It took some polite asking, moving into angry accusations, to outright threats. And then finally, compromise.

In order to keep the dragon from coming out to attack the countryside, they’d return the firestone. In exchange, and further serving the diplomatic goal of the mission, Kairi, Sora, and Riku would return with one of the fire-materia that Cid had been working with. He’d made a couple prototypes for a machine, but none had worked out yet. However, one of them had created a low-grade fire spell that anyone could cast every few hours. It wasn’t as powerful as the firestone, but would help with what the mayor wanted for the town.

It felt much, much too late by the time the three of them got to collapse into bed. The day hadn’t been terribly physically tiring, but it had still been draining and long.

“At least we met a dragon,” Kairi sighed, already half asleep.

“And they definitely have the people beat for who was nicer,” Riku grumbled into his pillow.

Sora was already snoring.


	13. Ash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 13 - "Ash"
> 
> Riku is supposed to catch a firebird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set during the enormous unwritten fic, very shortly after "Ring".

_“I will grant you passage without a fight, if you do me one favor. Go to the castle in the neighboring kingdom, and help the queen. She is grieving, and I cannot comfort her, because I cannot cross the border.”_

That was what the wolf had told him to do, and he’d agreed. Seemed better than trying to fight with her. He should probably be beyond the point where talking animals surprised him, but he wasn’t, and it made fighting seem like an even worse idea. So he’d gone to the queen and asked how to help her.

_“ Stay awake, and catch the firebird that comes to steal from my tree.”_

That was what the queen had said. Riku had had just about enough of the “stay awake and solve a problem” thing, but at least this time he wasn’t doing it on threat of death. Apparently the tree had been planted for the queen’s lover, who had vanished. And now every night, a firebird was coming and taking apples, which was an insult on top of injury.

The tree was impressive. The apples looked like genuine gold, gleaming in the low lantern light, though he knew they weren’t really metal. It was certainly different from the fruit trees he was used to. _Don’t think of star-shaped fruits on a palm tree. Don’t wonder how they taste, don’t despair that you won’t ever know, don’t picture two other people sharing one…_

And what did a firebird look like? He had to hope he’d know it when he saw it.

He settled in on a bench along the courtyard wall, where he could see the tree, but could also blend into the shadows, and waited.

-

The lanterns had started to burn lower, light dimming though not going out, when the firebird came. It flew down from over the wall, coming directly in front of Riku’s face, as if it _wanted_ him to see it, before swooping upward and landing gracefully in the tree.

It was quite literally breathtaking, as Riku gasped when it appeared. It glowed with its own light, a gold that put the apples on the tree to shame. He’d seen a dress and a ring that glowed like that, once. The bird was fairly large, with long, delicate looking wings, and a long tail sweeping behind it.

From its position in the tree, the firebird eyed him, as if it were waiting for him to do something. Rather than trying again to cast the spell, he stood on clumsy feet, and started toward the tree, eyes fixed on the beautiful creature. It seemed like something out of a dream, somehow more magical and strange than any of the other things he’d seen.

The bird hopped onto a higher branch. It broke eye contact to reach its beak toward one of the apples, and he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. He ran the rest of the way to the tree, reaching toward the bird, even as he realized that was never going to work to catch it.

The firebird took flight as soon as he grew near, and his hand closed briefly on a feather from its tail. It burned like he’d grabbed a coal, forcing him to let go. The bird soared away, over the wall. Riku looked at his hand, expecting it to be a blistered mess. But the pain had already faded, and his palm was smeared with ash.


	14. Overgrown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 14 - "Overgrown"
> 
> Sora, Kairi, and Riku revisit the play island.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set sometime after "Build", when the trio's lives in Radiant Garden are fairly well established and comfortable. Going at least vaguely off of an idea that a world called "Radiant Garden" puts a lot of emphasis on gardens, with monarchs always adding to them. And also, I just felt like writing some more fluff, apparently.

“I feel out of practice.” Sora laughed, clambering onto the dock.

Riku offered him a steadying hand. “Not used to rowing everywhere?”

“I mean really, we all did this every day?”

It was true. Getting their own rowboats had been a rite of passage as children, a sign their parents trusted them enough to go out to the play island alone. And they had taken advantage almost every single day. Endless summer days, quick afternoons after school, weekends… they’d taken any opportunity to come to the island, creating adventure.

“Come on, I want to see everything!” Kairi urged them on.

There were children on Destiny Islands, of course. But the play island had developed a reputation for being _haunted_, and the current crop of young children didn’t come here the way the three of them and their friends had.

The golden sand of the beach felt so familiar, as did the sea air itself. It had been years since they’d moved permanently to Radiant Garden, and of course Sora loved it there. But Destiny Islands, and even more specifically the play island, really felt like home.

They didn’t have a specific pathway in mind, so they followed Kairi, since this particular trip back had been her idea. She headed up first, to the winding pathways that crept up the higher part of the island, clinging to the trees, with its blend of walkways and treehouses.

Periodically, she’d pause, taking a pair of sharp scissors from the bag at her waist and snipping off a vine or a set of leaves. These she would carefully wrap in damp cloth or place in small vials of water that she gently tucked into her messenger bag.

“The ceiling is so low in here, “ she said, giggling.

Sora didn’t quite have to duck, though for Riku it was a near thing.

Back down at the beach level, Kairi turned toward the waterfall. The pool at the bottom was barely visible through the overgrown vines and short bushes that had grown up around it. Some of these she knelt and dug up with a trowel, placing the shallow root clusters in more of the damp fabric.

“You can barely even see the secret place,” Sora said, peering through the hanging vines and overlapping leaves.

“We have to check it out though, right?” Riku asked. “For old time’s sake, if nothing else.”

They walked single-file to the cave entrance, finding it more by memory than by actually seeing it. To get inside, they _did_ have to duck, though the space opened up quickly. The light inside was even dimmer than Sora remembered, though it shouldn’t have been surprising, considering how hard the entrance was to see.

Kairi walked over to the wall where their etchings remained. She traced fingers over the drawings of the three of them, the paopu fruits they’d drawn. Sora vividly remembered the determination on her face when she’d added Riku. At the time, they hadn’t even known where he’d gone, but she’d still been so certain they’d all be together at the end of it.

Riku stood in front of the doorway. The keyhole was still hidden, though any of them could likely have pulled it to the surface. In so many ways, this place had been the start of everything. Things could have turned melancholy, but instead it felt mostly nostalgic. Everything that had happened hadn’t been positive, but Sora also knew none of them would trade where they were now for any of it.

The island sun was all the brighter when they made their way back out.

Like the treehouses and platforms, the little clubhouse seemed smaller than they remembered, and the obstacle course that they’d competed on looked almost comically easy. There was no rush, and they took their time, enjoying the memories the island called up. They ended their miniature tour on the paopu island.

The tree had continued to grow, the upright part reaching higher next to the curve that provided a natural seat. They sat together, looking out at the sea in contented silence. There wasn’t much that needed to be said.

“Did you get everything you wanted?” Riku finally asked, bumping his shoulder into Kairi’s.

She nodded. “I think so. I hope that I can get the cuttings to root.”

Sora leaned forward, looking at her from Riku’s other side. “We can always come back if you need to try again.”

“There was one more thing that I wanted to try,” she said, and started to scramble up, standing on the tree trunk.

Riku placed a hand on her hip to help steady her as she reached up. Sora readied an aero spell just in case she took a tumble.

Her fingers brushed her obvious target, one of the bright yellow paopu fruits, like the one they'd all shared once. It didn't feel so long ago. A gentle tug, and the fruit came away. Riku helped her down the rest of the way.

“A paopu seedling will take forever to grow,” she said, tucking the fruit into her bag along with everything else. “I know that. But, well, I can’t really think of anything more important to me that I want in my garden.”

The absolute swell of affection he felt was too big for words, so Sora slid off the tree and pulled her and Riku both into a hug. They both immediately returned the gesture.

Soon they’d return home, where Kairi would grow plants from their childhood home to add to the gardens of Radiant Garden, a marker of their rule for the present and the future. And Sora couldn’t wait.


	15. Legend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 15 - "Legend"
> 
> Riku tells a story. Once upon a time, the Sun, the Moon, and the Star lived together on an island...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set shortly before "Freeze." In the world of 1001 Nights, Riku lends stories to buy time to save a queen's life.

“Do you have another story to share?” The whisper came from the other side of the wall.

Riku sighed. “Of course.” Truthfully, he’d already shared the stories he’d known as a child, the ones Sora’s mom would tell them, or the ones he remembered from school. But if all he could do was buy time, he would.

“Once upon a time,” he started, because that was always how these things started...

-

Once upon a time, the Sun and the Moon lived together on an island. They were the best of friends, hardly able to be separated.

Until one day, a Star fell to their island. She did not know where she had come from, only that she had fallen there. The Sun and the Moon welcomed her, and soon the three of them were as close as the Sun and Moon had been.

The three grew up together on their island, not knowing there were enemies beyond it. As time passed, the Star began to wonder where she had come from, and the Sun and the Moon decided to help her find her original home. The three planned a quest to discover her home. Before they could set off, darkness invaded the island.

The Sun was dismayed that his home and his friends might be in danger. But the danger also hinted at adventure, and the Moon was excited by the prospect.

The Star vanished when the darkness swallowed the island, and the Sun was determined to save her. His heart was so strong that he was given a magical key to aid him against the dark. The Sun found new friends, birds and beasts, willing to travel with him on his new quest. They discovered that the darkness had swallowed many worlds, that they had many places to protect. The Sun and his friends faced many trials, journeys through forests, deserts, and oceans, all to stop the darkness. Perhaps another day there will be time to follow all of his adventures.

The Moon also wanted to save the missing Star. And the darkness whispered to him that it knew the way. It brought the Moon the Star’s empty shell, and told him that there were other lights that must be brought together, and then the Star would wake. The darkness also whispered that the Sun had forgotten the Moon and the Star, that his new quest and his new allies had replaced his old friends in his heart.

The Moon was misled.

Finally, the Sun found the Star’s home, that place they’d originally wanted to find. She’d been born in an amazing castle, though it was now falling victim to the darkness. But the Moon had grown jealous, and plotted to steal the Sun’s key. He took it and the Sun’s new allies away, leaving the Sun alone. But the Sun’s heart was too strong to give in, and he came after the Moon. His strength won the key back, and his new friends as well.

The Moon was too proud to admit his flaws, to admit that he’d been wrong, so he fled. And the dark took a new form, promising him strength and power if he would give himself over to it. And the Moon was weak, and gave in.

The Moon sheltered the darkness within himself, and went back to the Sun. He led the Sun to the Star’s shell, but then the darkness completely overtook the Moon. The Sun battled the dark-Moon and made it retreat.

The Sun discovered that the Star’s heart had been inside his own the entire time. In order to free her, he had to lose his own heart. But he was strong enough to do so, stronger than the faithless Moon, and restored her. The Star’s love for the Sun then healed him, so that both could be whole.

They pursued the darkness, and fought it again, deciding to seal it behind a door to protect the worlds. The Moon, finally realizing he had been lied to, and full of regret, stayed on the inside of the door with the darkness, so that the Sun could lock it away with the magic key.

And that was how the Sun saved the heart of all the worlds… the Sun had more adventures, as did the Moon, and the Star, but those are stories for another time. 

-

Riku’s throat felt tight by the time he finished his story. He hadn’t thought it would be that difficult. Perhaps after this, he could just talk about the adventures ‘The Sun’ had gone on. Bittersweet, by comparison, but at least not quite requiring he lay his failures bare, even through the lens of a story.

“Thank you,” came the whisper through the wall.

“Of course.”

He leaned back, and tried to sleep.


	16. Wild

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 16 - "Wild"
> 
> The three take a break in the Pride Lands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always wondered what Riku or Kairi's Pride Lands forms would be. This one is pretty fluffy, set sometime after the long unwritten fic, maybe between "Dragon" and "Build."

It wasn’t quite a whirlwind tour of the worlds Sora (and sometimes Riku) had visited, though the idea held some appeal. Instead, they spaced the visits out, making lists of all the places they’d gone, the places they wanted the others to see.

The mirrors had opened up even more worlds than the gummi ships and keyholes had. They’d started trying to map them (with all the attendant struggles of multi-dimensional mapping where distance and relative position and existence itself all seemed to be theoretical at times) and as new worlds were discovered, they made plans to visit them. Not to deliberately interfere: they didn’t feel as strongly about the “world order” as some rulers did, but they still respected new worlds’ autonomy. But they also felt at least some sense of duty to ensure the safety of these worlds, knowing there were dangers out there from Heartless and mirror shards.

Quick visits to some of these new places, plus diplomatic journeys to worlds they’d already allied with, and frequent returns to visit Sora’s mom and Kairi’s parents back on Destiny Islands, meant their travel time was beyond spoken for most of the time.

Still, every once in a while, they just wanted to go have fun.

The Pride Lands had been peaceful since Simba had returned to his kingship. He and Nala were raising their daughter, the region was prospering, and Heartless incursions had grown increasingly rare.

The best mirror was an oasis pool. They could have taken the gummi ship, but it would have added a not-insignificant amount of time to their journey, and they didn’t have much more than the afternoon as it was.

Sora was the first to splash his way out of the reflective water, shaking water from his fur. His legs—all four of them—were longer than the first time he’d been here, and his spiky mane was thicker.

He turned back to Riku and Kairi. He’d intentionally not reminded them of how this was one of the worlds that shifted visitor’s forms, though he’d told them about it before. It would have been a lie to say that he hadn’t been looking forward to seeing what forms they’d wind up in.

Riku was a leopard, though with a subdued silvery coat under the spots. His blue-green eyes stayed the same. He almost stumbled as he got out of the pool, awkwardly adjusting to four legs instead of two. “What the…” he trailed off, and then circled, trying to stare at his own tail.

Kairi was a unusually reddish cheetah, the facial striping like liner around indigo eyes. She seemed to adjust slightly faster than Riku had, making it out of the water without tripping. “You _could_ have reminded us.” She glared at Sora, the expression still coming through perfectly on a feline face.

“That wouldn’t have been nearly as fun.”

“At least we’ll dry off quickly,” Riku said. “Turns out wet fur really doesn’t feel great.”

Sora nodded. “Come on, let’s run!”

“I bet I’m fastest!” Kairi teased, taking off and quickly passing him.

“Get back here!” Riku chased after her, laughing.

Sora brought up the rear, only pretending that it was a competition. For now it was enough that they were together, under a hot sun, with the afternoon stretching ahead of them.


	17. Ornament

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 17 - "Ornament"
> 
> Kairi has always liked to make jewelry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another fluffy one. Set somewhere after "Snow," and before "Bait." Kairi makes three new Wayfinders.

Kairi made bracelets and charms when she was a child. Woven bracelets with glass beads and seashells, given as gifts and traded around at the end of the school year.

At the start of one summer, she read a book of local legends. It devoted a lot of space to talking about the legend of the Paopu fruit, and how it could tie destinies together, creating an unbreakable bond between people who shared it. The fruit was a traditional component to wedding celebrations on the Destiny Islands, though it wasn’t solely considered a romantic legend, and any sufficiently strong bond could (allegedly) be formalized by sharing the fruit. Of course Kairi had heard about that particular story before: there was a Paopu tree on the play island, and Selphie had been all but obsessed with the story for quite a while.

But in the same book, there was a chapter about Wayfinder charms. These were charms made of shells stitched together into a star shape, generally with some sort of symbolic token in the middle. They were most famously created for sailors going on long journeys, as a token from their loved ones left on the Islands. Supposedly they carried a promise similar to the Paopu fruit, guaranteeing the recipient and the person who made it would be reunited, meaning the Wayfinder would convey protection to the sailor, and ensure that they returned home safely.

Would it work even if the maker of the charm went with? Because all three of them were going to build a raft and sail away. A Wayfinder would be a perfect charm to take with them. Kairi started to scour the beach for Thalassa shells, needing to find ones that were perfectly intact and even in size to make her charm.

-

Spending a long, golden sunset on the beach, sifting through the sand as the waves rolled in, searching for the most perfect Thalassa shells… It all certainly gave Kairi a sense of deja vu.

Theoretically, the pressure was greater, now, but… no, scratch that. It had always felt like the highest of stakes. She’d done all right the first time; Sora had come back, after all.

Now she needed 15 shells, maybe a couple extra, just to be safe. Sometimes a shell looked perfect, but when you went to weave them into place, they cracked.

Another one was carried close by the movement of the waves, and she held it under the water to rinse it free of sand. Perfect. 8 down, at least 7 more to go.

-

Kairi decided to do the gifting in private. It wasn’t like any of it was really a surprise: Riku had been the one to tentatively ask if they could all share a Paopu; Kairi had decided that when she was officially coronated, both Riku and Sora would officially be her consorts; and Sora had sort-of accidentally (and then very seriously) proposed to them both. 

Plus they had to be suspicious that she was planning on doing _something_, when she asked if she could borrow their keys. It was a set of three that they each had one of: originally a set of three impossible rings, and a separate set of three golden keys, now melded into Sora’s gold key that shone like the sun, Riku’s silver key that glowed like the moon, and Kairi’s that glittered like starlight. Those three keys had brought them together before.

She handed each of the newly made Wayfinders to her fiancés. Sora’s was crimson and gold cord woven together, the Thalassa shells forming a perfect star around his golden key. Riku’s was black and silver, the centerpiece his silver key. Both had cords long enough to be worn as necklaces, or could be made shorter if they’d rather keep them in a pocket or attach them some other way.

Sora, always the most expressive, jumped forward and pulled her into a hug that crushed the air out of her lungs. Riku held his Wayfinder to his heart, before looping it over his head. When Sora let go, Riku pulled her into a gentler, but still firm hug.

“They’re beautiful. Thank you,” he murmured half into her hair.

“I have one too,” she said as Riku stepped back.

Hers was of course centered on her star-bright key, especially appropriate in the star-shaped charm, and the cord weaving the shells together was mixed pink and purple.

“No matter what journeys we face ahead, we’ll always come back to each other,” she said.

“Always,” Riku agreed.

“Never a question,” Sora said, holding his up. “We always have before.”


	18. Misfit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 18 - "Misfit"
> 
> The council in Hollow Bastion tries to convince Riku to step down before Kairi takes the throne.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set sometime before "Ornament," before Kairi becomes queen of Radiant Garden.
> 
> (This one touches on a few of the places where my fic differs from canon. Such as the reason Kairi was sent to Destiny Islands as a child, and that I consider Hollow Bastion to be the name of the castle in Radiant Garden, so both names are still in use.)

“It’s just that, well, I think it’s relatively obvious that you stepping aside would be the best choice for everyone. And it will fall to you to make that decision.”

The three councilmen had all but cornered him in the hall.

“You want me to step aside?” Riku repeated.

The councilman in front of the other two pressed his lips thinner, but when he spoke again, it was still with impeccably level tone. “Yes. It is clearly the best decision for the kingdom. Princess Kairi will have to name a king for Hollow Bastion and, well, she obviously can’t choose two.”

“I wasn’t aware she was going to name a king,” Riku said mildly. In fact, he knew perfectly well that she didn’t intend to.

The councilman scoffed. “Radiant Garden may have a queen, but there is _always_ a king in Hollow Bastion.”

“And you expect that it will come down to her being _forced_”—he stressed the word deliberately—”to choose either Sora or me?”

The councilman’s expression was starting to appear strained. “Yes. But wouldn’t it be best to simplify that decision? To gracefully concede, for the stability of the kingdom? Rather than continue to take advantage of whatever sense of obligation she feels to you?”

Riku locked eyes with him. “You act like it’s a competition, and you just realized you made a bad bet.” Riku judged all three of their expressions, to exactly which degrees they let displeasure show. The lead councilman was definitely the worst, his face turning red.

“This has always been orchestrated, did you know that?” the councilman snapped. “We may not have been able to foretell the whole of the disasters that befell your home world, but we always knew that a Keyblade master would awaken there. Sending our princess away as a child was for her own safety, yes, but ensuring she was in the right place to make a favorable match to be our future king was also significant.”

“And now you don’t like the way it turned out?” Riku allowed the smallest hint of a smile, though he wiped it away quickly.

“Originally, it was meant to be you,” the man spat. One of the other councilmen put a hand on his sleeve, but he shook it off. “You were meant to arise as the chosen master of the Keyblade, but you weren’t _worthy_. Imagine, giving a position of power to someone who fell to the darkness. Princess Kairi can and has done better than a- a _misfit_ like you.”

He flung the word ‘misfit’ like it was truly the worst curse he could think of. Riku thought about how those words could once have gutted him. How a year or two earlier, someone saying something like that to him would have made him retreat into himself. He set that aside.

He did allow himself a smile then, though anyone who knew him would recognize it as a dangerous one. “Heir apparent Kairi is fully capable of making her own decisions, and does not require me to make them for her. Or you. I know she has already considered the options ahead of her. And I look forward to you finding out what she’s decided.”

With that, he pushed past the sputtering councilmen. Some of this was absolutely information that Kairi needed.


	19. Sling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 19 - "Sling"
> 
> Riku and Sora visit a world that doesn't allow magic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set somewhere around "Dragon" and "Wild."

Riku made a face as Sora helped him up into the wagon. Sora suppressed a smile as he also helped Riku sit down. The footing wasn’t terribly even, and only being able to use one arm made it more difficult.

Once Riku was settled, Sora sat down next to him, leaning close as the wagon started to move. They didn’t have the wagon entirely to themselves, but they could talk quietly without being overheard. “How’s your arm?”

Riku glared at him, and used his “good arm” to adjust the sling. “Good as can be expected.”

Riku’s arm was fine, of course. Sora had cast the cure spell himself after a poorly timed strike by an enemy club had broken the bone. Unfortunately, several of the soldiers had seen the hit, and had seen the way Riku’s arm bent, and therefore knew it had been broken. Sora and Riku had managed to convince them that the group’s medic didn’t need to check him out, that Sora had some fabricated expertise with healing, but they still had to keep up appearances.

Sora planted a kiss to Riku’s temple. “Just until they drop us off,” he murmured. “Then we’ll be all clear.”

This was a scouting mission of sorts, to a newly discovered world through the mirrors. Kairi had intended to come with, but a last minute commitment at home in Radiant Garden had forced her to stay behind. Riku and Sora had gone ahead to make sure there weren’t any signs of Heartless in the world.

There hadn’t been signs of Heartless yet, but the world itself seemed to be a magic-less world… which meant no spells, no Keyblades, and no potions, unless they knew they were alone. The last thing they needed was to be hailed as some sort of miracle workers. That path led to witch burnings or cult formation, if not both, and neither would be good.

The group of soldiers had been kind enough to offer the pair a ride in the supply wagon to the nearest town, a courtesy since Riku had been injured in a battle they'd accidentally been caught in. They’d spend another day or two there digging around for rumors, making sure there hadn’t been any bizarre creature sightings that pointed to Heartless, making sure they didn’t sense anything out of the ordinary, and then they’d quietly return home.

Riku settled a little closer, shutting his eyes and pillowing his head on Sora’s shoulder.

“Tired?” Sora asked.

Riku kept his eyes closed and said, “Lots of healing to do, you know.”

Sora laughed, and rested his cheek on Riku’s hair. At least it would be a pleasant enough trip to the next town.


	20. Tread

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 20 - "Tread"
> 
> Kairi awakens alone in the home of a mysterious stranger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like this one, but it is very much about Kairi individually rather than the trio. Set a bit after "Legend" and fairly soon before "Freeze."

The tub was a large, metal, clawfooted thing, standing alone in the center of the room. Oil-burning lamps along the walls provided the only dim light in the room, steady, but eerie. The water steamed, and Kairi’s skin crawled with need for a bath, but it still felt strangely exposed to bathe here. She didn’t trust the mysterious man in this house, though he had been perfectly polite.

She approached the tub, leaning forward until her reflection was clear in the still water. She tried to open her mind and her heart, to let herself feel a road beyond the reflection, to reach out to the mirrors... Nothing happened. Kairi bit her lip, suppressing rising panic threatening to choke her. It wasn’t the first time she’d found a place with a ‘mirror’ that wasn’t connected to the rest. She wished desperately that she could tell Sora that she was okay. She hoped he was.

Just to be sure, she sent out an exploratory touch toward her Keyblade, and was relieved when it started to respond. She pulled away before it could actually materialize; she didn’t want to tip her hand regarding what she could do.

Finally she stripped off the enchanted clothing—a simple gown in this world, rather than anything that felt more familiar—and slid into the water. It felt wonderful, though the flakes of brown that dissolved into red when they hit the water was disturbing.

Most of the dried blood was in her hair, and she leaned back and carefully felt through the tangles and matted strands. The blood came away easily enough, but she couldn’t find any trace of a wound on her scalp. Perhaps someone had used a cure spell, but usually that would leave its own sensation behind.

And it wasn’t _only_ in her hair. The backs of her calves, where the dress had pulled up. Down the back of her neck. The underside of her wrists, her fingers, caking in the folds of her palms and undersides of her knuckles. _Like she’d lain in it_. The dress likely only unscathed due to the enchantments that allowed it to repair itself as well as change.

_‘Perhaps it is not your blood,’_ Namine whispered in the back of her mind.

Kairi clung to her other self’s presence as something familiar, at least. _‘I’m afraid you’re right.’_

A bar of soap had been left for her, and she used it to quickly scrub the rest of the way clean. The water cooled off rapidly, encouraging her to hurry, as if she hadn’t already wanted to be done as quickly as possible.

There was a towel which she used to dry off the best she could, though her hair was still damp. She redressed in the simple, long dress her clothes had transformed into, and ventured back out into the hallway. “Mr. Fox” had told her to come find him once she was done.

She stepped carefully down the stairs, as dimly lit as the rest of the house. There were lamps in all the halls and rooms, and every few steps in the stairwell, but it was never enough to beat back the darkness entirely. Even passing by the occasional windows was no help: it must have been the middle of the night, because Kairi couldn’t see anything beyond the glass.

Mr. Fox was waiting in a well-appointed sitting room at the bottom of the stairs. He stood when Kairi entered, and bowed. “Miss Kairi,” he greeted her. 

“Mr. Fox,” she replied, unsure if she was supposed to curtsey or not. She settled for a sort of half-bob. At the very least, she should be polite.

He spread his arm, offering for her to sit. She sat gingerly on the edge of the ornate padded chair he’d directed her toward, watching him as he returned to his equally fine seat.

“And now, my dear visitor, it seems time for us to have our conversation.”

“Yes, thank you.” She very much needed to know how to get out of here.

“Would I be mistaken in my guess that you are something of a sorceress?”

“A sorceress?” The word tripped her up. Not that it wasn’t a word she knew, just not one she’d ever applied to herself.

“A mage, a magic-user, a witch, an enchantress, an occultist…” he attempted to explain.

She licked dry lips. “Would it be a problem if I were?”

His eyes widened a fraction, and he gave a smile much more broad than the little, furtive ones he’d given before. “Not at all, my dear. I’m a practitioner myself.”

She thought about her relatively lackluster attempts at magic, relying on the materia. It was more than she’d ever thought she’d be capable of, but she still wasn’t able to do it unaided the way Sora could. “I’m… not much of one.” 

She wasn’t certain what about this man made her want to undersell herself. That wasn’t like her, but as before when she’d made sure not to reveal her Keyblade on the chance that he would somehow know, she would rather he didn’t know everything that she could do.

“‘Not much of one’ is significantly superior to most.”

“What I really need to know is how I got here,” she said, steering the conversation back. “I have no memory of arriving here, just of waking up on your couch.”

His eyes widened again, and he blinked a couple times, all polite confusion. “I was hoping that you could tell me. It was quite a shock to find you here. I live alone, and there’s no one else for some distance around.”

“I’m sorry for my accidental imposition,” Kairi started, but Mr. Fox cut her off.

“Well, if neither of us has any idea by what mechanism you’ve come to be here, then perhaps we will have to wait for this phenomenon to reassert itself.”

“I really can’t stay,” she protested. Sora had to be extremely worried for her after the way they’d been separated. And they couldn’t afford to lose any time pursuing Riku.

“I’m afraid you may not have much of a choice. The night is quite impassable this time of year outside my manor, and it stretches terribly long. But do not fear. I shall do all in my power to discover the method by which you were brought here. In the meantime, you say you _are _something of a sorceress?”

“Not much of one,” Kairi repeated.

“Would you like to learn?”

It was just on her lips to refuse, but… she did want to learn. Sora had taught her what he could, but they hadn’t had an opportunity to ask anyone else.

“Only until we discover how to return you to where you belong, of course,” he hastened to add. “Something to pass the time while you’re here.”

“I would like that,” she said, and realized she really meant that.

He offered her his hand, which she hesitantly took. He lifted her fingers up and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles, though he held his eyes on hers while he did so. “Excellent.”

Then he stood and helped her to rise. “I’m sure that you still need rest, after whatever it was that brought you here. However, one bit of advice I would like to impart.” His voice grew grave as he spoke.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to teach you, however long that may last. However, I bid you tread lightly while you are here. There is a bit of a… personal motto, that I ask any who come here to abide by. _Be bold, be bold_, for I wish everyone to push themselves to their full potential. But just as vitally, _be bold, but not too bold,_ for you must always respect limits. Do not trespass in any room locked to you. I have my own experiments and studies that must not be disturbed. But if you can do that, I believe we will have a quite pleasant time together.”

Kairi smiled and nodded. She was perfectly willing to respect the rules of her host. But she also did not like the faint hint of threat that his words carried.


	21. Treasure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 21 - Treasure
> 
> The trio are asked to find a hidden treasure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Real life stuff imploded for a while, but I still intend to finish the prompt list. I won't be caught up by today, but I'll post them as I finish them. Some will likely be on the shorter side, like this one. I'm also doing NaNoWriMo, so finishing these may be sporadic over the next week or two.
> 
> This one is set a little after "Wild" and sometime before "Build".

“They want us to come to Atlantica to... look for treasure?” Riku asked, skepticism creeping through.

Kairi shrugged. “That’s what they said.”

“Did they say what kind, exactly? Because I remember what Sora told us about Ariel and her collections. It was all treasure to her, but…”

“She said _pirate_ treasure,” Kairi elaborated.

“Pirates?” Sora had just been listening up until that point, but that caught his attention. He’d met pirates. A couple times, actually. “Like Neverland pirates, or undead cursed pirates?”

“Like Atlantica pirates, I would guess.” It looked like she was trying to hide a smile, though she failed.

“Ha ha.” He stuck his tongue out at her.

“Why do they need us to come find this alleged pirate treasure?” Riku asked. “If they know where it is, they should already have it. If they don’t know where it is, why would we have a better chance at finding it?”

“According to the message from Ariel, they think it’s in a place that neither the merfolk nor the humans can get to. You have to be able to swim to get to the cavern, but then you have to be able to go up into the non-submerged caves to find it. Her family is sick of humans coming into their waters after it and nearly drowning. Telling people not to go after it hasn’t helped, either.”

“But if someone finds the treasure, then there won’t be any reason for people to keep going after it. And I guess we fit the bill as far as being able to swim and go up on land.” Riku sighed. “Fine.”

Kairi pumped a fist in the air. “Yes!”

“You just wanted an excuse to be a mermaid,” Sora accused.

He noticed she didn’t try to deny it.


	22. Ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 22 - Ghost
> 
> There's a rumor that Hollow Bastion is haunted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set after "Dragon" and before "Sling."

_“I think there are rumors that the castle is haunted,”_ Namine said.

“Oh?” Kairi replied. Softly; she didn’t need anyone questioning her fitness to rule for exciting new reasons. But speaking aloud felt more like a conversation than thinking pointedly.

_“Oh yes. Strange visions of a young blond man and woman seen in the hallways sometimes. Or maybe that the new queen and one of her consorts are the haunted ones. People seeing double when they look at them.”_

Kairi sighed and set the pen down. She’d been taking notes on one of her father’s journals, hoping to find clues that could help the increasingly impossible-seeming mapping project. “Well, I’m not going to ask you or Roxas to stop appearing, if you’re worried about that,” she said.

Namine’s laughter was more of a feeling than a true sound.

“Do you want me to let you take over more often? You shouldn’t be relegated to a ghost in your own body.”

_“A witch when I had my own body, a ghost now that we’re whole… maybe we can visit Halloweentown and see if I can be a vampire or something, too.”_

Kairi smiled, Namine’s genuine amusement coming through. “I do mean it,” she insisted. “I want you to be happy.”

_“I am happy. We’re whole. And anyway, it’s not the first time I’ve been treated like a ghost.”_

A flash of memory then, of a mansion at the edge of a town Kairi hadn’t known at the time, but now recognized as Twilight Town. A twitch of a curtain pulled to the side and then back, and stories of a girl in white, hiding away in an abandoned house.

“We could make some sort of formal announcement, maybe,” Kairi suggested. “Letting everyone know who you and Roxas are, that you’re a part of us, not something to be afraid of. There are plenty of people who were lost in the Heartless crisis and later restored, so it’s not like we’re alone…”

Namine cut her off with a sharp interruptive thought. _“I’d rather save that reveal, just in case."_

And another memory from Namine. Of Kairi, in danger, knocked unconscious and unable to protect herself. And Namine ‘waking’ the rest of the way, surprising the enemy who hadn’t known she existed. Saving them both.

_“Hopefully it never comes to that again, but I think I like having the element of surprise.”_

Kairi picked her pen back up and smiled, trying to convey just how strongly she agreed, how grateful she was that Namine had done that for them, how satisfying it was to know she had.

There were worse ways to be “haunted.”


	23. Ancient

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 23 - Ancient
> 
> Sora, Kairi, and a friend find a group of wise women.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of an excerpt than a lot of these have been, this is a part of one of the chapters of the long fic. (Set before "Ring.") Mari is sort of an OC, my version of the unnamed protagonist of the fairy tale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon." The three wise women turn out to be the Norns of Norse mythology.

Sora, Kairi, and Mari stepped inside, the warmth of the cabin washing over them. This was clearly the main room, a fire burning in a hearth across the back wall. To the right was a setup that Kairi thought was for weaving: a loom and a basket of wool, as well as skeins of woven thread. A woman was seated at the table to the left, and she rose as they entered.

“Hello, and welcome. I am happy to see you arrived safe.” She was clearly the one who had bid them to enter.

Mari answered, “Thank you. I came here seeking the aid of a group of wise women…” Here she faltered a bit, as if suddenly worried they’d come to the wrong place after all.

Kairi couldn’t entirely blame her; the woman in front of them was not what she’d been picturing. The term “wise women” had called to mind women like her grandmother, maybe. Older. This woman was perhaps in her thirties at most, gold-blonde hair gathered at the back of her neck,

The woman smiled, indulgent rather than judgemental. “I knew you were seeking my sisters and myself.” Then, calling over her shoulder, “Our guests arrived!”

A door along the back opened, giving a brief glimpse of a bedroom, before two more women entered. The fact that they were all sisters was immediately evident; in fact, if they hadn’t had different hair colors, Kairi would have thought they were identical triplets. One of the women had chestnut hair a bit lighter than Kairi’s red, and the other’s hair was black, but facially they looked the same.

Both the new women smiled and nodded to them. “Even knowing you would arrive, I am glad you have,” the woman with black hair said.

“Thank you,” Mari said, “But I only needed to ask—”

She was abruptly cut off when the black-haired sister raised a hand. “We will help you.”

The blonde said, “But your journey was not easy.”

The red-haired one finished, “So now we eat and drink, and you can recover before you continue.”

-

The sisters fed them, the first meal any of them had had in days that wasn’t pulled from a pack, or at best cooked over a campfire. 

“Did you need more to eat?” the blonde sister asked once all the bowls were empty. Kairi had begun to think of her as the eldest, despite there being no apparent difference in their ages. In the same way, she realized she assumed the dark-haired one was the youngest.

Kairi was almost surprised to find that the answer was no. It had been the perfect amount of food; she wasn’t still hungry, nor did she feel like she’d eaten too much.

Both Sora and Mari also shook their heads. All three sisters smiled.

Mari took a deep breath. “I’m looking for the castle east of the sun and west of the moon.” The words tumbled out in a rush, as if she were afraid of being interrupted again as she tried to ask.

The red-haired woman lowered her gaze. “I’m afraid reaching the castle is not within our power.”

Mari looked dismayed, tears coming to her eyes, though they didn’t spill down her cheeks. “But—“

“We can direct you to a way to get there, don’t fear,” she said kindly. “But you must be prepared to go. What could make you seek such a place?”

Again, Mari’s words came out in a rush. “My husband. He was taken from me. It was my fault, I should have trusted him, and I didn’t. I didn’t know he’d been cursed, and so when I broke a promise to him, the curse pulled him away. He’s been taken to that castle, where a sorceress plans to force him into marriage. I have to save him. If only I’d—“

She was cut off again as the blonde woman said, “The past can’t be altered in the present. ‘_If only’_ does us no good when we must face what _is_. The past informs every moment of our present, and of everything that will be contained in our futures. And even those future destinies may echo back to create our pasts. But what has been done has been done. You went with the bear. You lit the candle. You kissed your husband. Wishing it to be different will not make it so. But you can change what is yet to be.”

Mari stared at the woman, wide-eyed as details of her story were told to her. Kairi’s breath caught in her throat, and she felt her heart flutter. Next to her, Sora’s expression matched hers.

All three of the sisters looked to them, and meeting their eyes in turn, Kairi didn’t think they seemed so young. She’d thought wise women must be old, and in those seconds their eyes seemed impossibly ancient.

The woman was speaking again. “The past is no stranger to me. But do not go to the castle east of the sun and west of the moon concerned with what has been; that is a way to become trapped. The past will have gotten you there, but you must be there because you are seeking your future, do you understand?”

Mari swallowed, visibly. Her voice was very small when she said, “Yes, I think so.”

It was the apparent middle sister, the red-head, who said, “The castle east of the sun and west of the moon is the domain of the sorceress who took your husband. She is dangerous, and will not take kindly to anyone attempting to snatch away what she believes is her rightful victory over him. And over you. We can give you what you need to succeed, but you are the one who must save him.”

Mari nodded, stronger this time, lips pressed thinly together.

The red-haired sister turned to Kairi, then to Sora. “You have something you are seeking as well.”

“Our friend,” Sora said. “Riku. He vanished, and we need to find him.”

“He has not been here,” the blonde said. “I’m sorry.”

Kairi tried not to let herself feel the disappointment. She’d known how unlikely it was that he would be here, but she’d still hoped.

The black-haired sister said, “My sisters and I wish to help all three of you. We will do what we can. Each of you may ask one question, and each of us will answer one question. You will rest here. And then we will do our best to send you away on the correct path.”

“Thank you,” Sora said.

Kairi did not know who these women were, though it was clear they weren’t human. Or not entirely.

When the eldest sister got up and went to Mari, the girl didn’t resist as she was led toward a seat across the room.

The dark-haired sister stood and nodded to Kairi, “Would you come to the fire with me?” she asked.

“Of course,” Kairi answered, standing. Sora reached up and gave her hand a brief squeeze. She smiled at him before following the woman over to where the fire was burning in the hearth, leaving Sora at the table with the final sister.


End file.
